"The Gift" is an episode of transition as we head into Voyager's fourth season. It follows the big Borg two-part cliffhanger from last season which introduced Seven of Nine. This is one of those times where Voyager gets to be a little serialized, as the crew is still trying to get all the Borg junk out of Cargo Bay 5 from the previous episode, and deal with their new Borg. This is also the episode where Kes was written out. Originally, that was supposed to happen in episode 5, but scheduling negotiations with Jennifer Lien led to the story being moved up. I remember the promos for this episode saying, "Someone will leave forever. Who will it be?" And it was clear it would be Kes, not only because they never seemed to know how to write her, but also because she no longer appeared in the opening credits.

This episode is really about two stories at once. On one hand, it's about Kes' Ocampan psychokinetic powers advancing to the point where she leaves the ship to pursue them Wesley Crusher-style. On the other hand, Janeway struggles to convince Seven of Nine to shut up and be human already.

That's the part I'd like to discuss first, because it struck me when I watched this again recently. People talk a lot about how "progressive" Star Trek is, but watching this again I saw how very conservative Janeway's position is. Seven's link to the Borg collective was severed in the previous episode; she is now all alone. Over time, her human functions have started to assert themselves. Seven doesn't want to be human because she's been a Borg for as long as she can remember. But Janeway's position is that she's human, she was born that way, and she should embrace going back to that life because it's who she really is. From one perspective, it seems Janeway is saying, "I don't care that you want to be something else! This is what you really are and you just have to accept it!" Imagine that attitude about someone with gender-queer or transsexual leanings (for lack of a better word). Does Janeway's position seem "progressive"?

But of course, Janeway doesn't see it that way. To her, Seven is a victim of kidnapping and so any affinity she has for the Borg is just Stockholm Syndrome. Therefore, Janeway believes herself to be perfectly justified. So Seven argues with her that she wants to be left on a planet so the Borg can find her and she can rejoin the collective. They tell her this is no longer possible because her human physiology has asserted itself too fully. Janeway never ever considered this option. She just kept Seven on her ship until she could make her human again, and now it's too late for what Seven wants.

But Janeway tries to convince Seven that humanity and individuality and choice are wonderful things if she'll give them a chance. And then Seven says something interesting. She asks, "When I'm fully human, if I then want to rejoin the Collective, will you let me?" And instead of being pro-choice, Janeway dodges the question. The fair answer would be "Yes." But Janeway avoids it and says, "I don't think you'll want to." Seven calls her out as a hypocrite.

Does Seven have a point? For all Starfleet's talk of personal freedoms and such, isn't Janeway just making unilateral decisions? This is the Laura Roslin school of leadership. Janeway essentially "knows" she's right, and continually gives Seven nothing but "I know what's best for you!"

But maybe there are tactical reasons for not releasing Seven. Does she become a security threat if she's allowed to rejoin the Collective? Then again, the Borg already scanned the ship and now its complement of weapons and such. And if this reasoning plays any part in Janeway's decision, she certainly gives no indication of it.

Contrast this episode with "I, Borg" in which Picard is faced with a similar issue. But for him, he doesn't WANT a Borg with individuality; he doesn't want to see a Borg as a person. But they do come to see him as an individual with his own agency, and in the end they allow Hugh to rejoin the collective. They even back off their plan to use him to infect the Borg. As a side note, the Borg are very different post-First Contact. I like to think they had an upgrade. Now, they have nanoprobes that assimilate them on the cellular level. And yet, Seven's body somehow begins "rejecting" its Borg stuff after the link is severed. This didn't happen to Hugh. My sister theorized that it's because Hugh wasn't human originally, so maybe his species reacts differently.

Let's look at the Kes side of things. Personally, it always makes me sad that they wrote her out of the show. I liked Kes, but the character encapsulates the major criticism of Voyager: they have a good concept and no idea how to write for it. A species that lives only nine years is a great premise. But then the writers seemed to have a hard time wrapping their heads around it. Kes tended to stagnate as the "child-like" character and didn't grow the way she should have, apart from a few episodes. I like that the way they wrote her out at least paid off the things set up in "Cold Fire" and other episodes.

There's a moment when Kes is exploring her power with Tuvok, and she says, "I can see beyond the sub-atomic." Then Tuvok says, "Kes, there is nothing beyond the sub-atomic," and I just want to laugh in his face. Of COURSE there is, Tuvok! There's the sub-sub-atomic (quarks and stuff), and besides, logically, there must be SOMETHING there, even if it's just some gravitational force or vibrating strings of energy.

Kes ultimately leaves the ship because she has no control over her sudden powers, and they start endangering the ship. I like the ripply effect used for Kes' transformation because it reminds me of the Traveler. Before the titular gift of pushing Voyager light years ahead (in a moment very reminiscent of "Where No One Has Gone Before"), she has a scene with Janeway where she discusses leaving, and this is where the two plots meet.

Janeway tries to convince Kes not to leave, that these experiences are new and exciting but what if they're not good? Kes says, "it's my choice," and then asks Janeway, "Would you really stop me?" Janeway says no, but that she would fight her and try to convince her to change her mind right up to the end. Again, doesn't this seem a more stereotypically "conservative" ideology? Regardless, this is yet another example where Janeway prefers her own idea of what's best despite the individual's choice.

"The Gift" is the series in transition, and in many ways the series got better. But this episode also highlights the conflicting elements behind Janeway's decision-making process, and the reason some people hate her. Her unilateral decision stranded them in the Delta Quadrant in the first place. Some fans accuse her essentially of murder in "Tuvix" and again in the finale when she wipes out a timeline for her own reasons. This is yet another example of her questionable judgment, from a certain point of view. Even the Doctor agrees that the Seven issue is an ethical dilemma, because if it were a patient refusing treatment, he'd be obligated to comply. "The Gift" sort of represents the best and worst of the series.

What do you think? Did Janeway make the right call?

Did she make the right call for the wrong reasons?

Do you prefer Seven over Kes?

Maybe you'd like to argue the ethics of individuality by force. Or maybe my reading of the episode is totally wrong! Tell my why you think so!

I've always felt her character, while stunted a bit by the writers, was an interesting example of someone who is stubborn to a fault, and that's what's led them to success (becoming captain of a starship, for example).

Janeway IS a conservative, or as close as you can get to one in the Trek universe. It's understandable that the character would ruffle feathers, and that's one of the reasons I love Janeway's character.

I always found her transition from a scientist-turned-captain (first few episodes) to a sort of crazed "don't fuck with my children" mother figure in the later seasons to be an interesting one.

She does a lot of questionable things, but they are always for reasons that can be justified if you view them from Janeway's perspective. However that doesn't make them any less selfish.

It's actually quite fitting that we see Janeway as a Starfleet admiral in Nemesis, I think. It's always been my experience that admirals in Starfleet have a crazy streak, or the very least, a stubborn streak. How many times have we seen Picard or Sisko square off against a stubborn admiral who can't see things from a different point of view?

It's fitting that Janeway moves up into that field at the end of Trek canon, as it seems fitting for her to be squaring off with the Siskos and Kirks and Picards of the future.

I love how Kes's character was evolving before her departure. She was turning into a woman and her childish charm was fading. Episode 6x23 (Before and After) was such a terrific episode and I'm glad we got to see more of "grown up" Kes. I initially was not saddened by her character until I saw the badass way they developed her. If I remember correctly, Harry Kim was supposed to be written off instead of Kes. Kim never really wowed me. It would have been cool if they developed Kes into that badass, wrote Kim off, and added Seven. Kim was never essential to the plot. With Seven and Badass-Kes, the possibilities for awesome episodes would be infinite insert nerdgasm

As far as Janeway's decision about severing Seven's connection to the collective, I ultimately think she made the right decision. Of course, Seven protested and even said "Your attempts to assimilate this drone will fail. You can alter our physiology but you cannot change our nature. We will betray you. We are Borg." I think the key part of that is "our nature". She is human, not Borg so I think Janeway was right in showing Seven what her "true" nature is (although Janeway can be annoying at times with it).

The main problem I had with it was Janeway's decision to help the Borg defeat Species 8472...well, not so much the decision itself, but the thought process involved. I won't touch on the fact that she picks when to follow the Prime Directive because let's be real...name a captain that didn't violate the Prime Directive for their own reasons. But she did not have all the facts. She did not consider local species like Arturis's people (episode 4x26 Hope and Fear). "The need of the many outweigh the need of the few". In this instance, I think Voyager did more harm than good. Why is Voyager's crew more valuable than entire species? Granted, Janeway could not have known, but she never even took it into consideration.

You mentioned Tuvix...all I have to say is fuck that "guy". He was an annoying, self-entitled asshole. I would hardly consider that situation murder. I think it could be argued that letting him live would could be considered murdering Tuvok and Neelix. Side note...unless my memory is fuzzy, they never extracted the DNA from the flower sample, so maybe she did kill a flower~~

My sister and I always laugh about Janeway's plan to join forces with the Borg. She's the only captain who ever thought she could just "talk things out" with the Borg and make them understand. And what do you know, when the alliance was ended, they tried to assimilate everyone! Of course they did, the're the Borg! Stupid Janeway. I get it to a point, since Species 8472 was a threat to her as well, but to quote Fox Mulder, "Did you really think you could call up the Devil and ask him to behave?"

But Operation Scorpion was a back-up plan only hatched after Chakotay told her about how the Borg started the fight. I see nothing in the episode to indicate she always intended that as a fall-back measure. If she had, I doubt Chakotay would have been as combative with her.

It's the first officer's duty to question the captain. Chakotay never agreed to an alliance in the first (granted, with clear reason). But the fact that it was called Operation Scorpion shows that it was preconceived since Chakotay told that story long before they knew who actually started the war.

No, because operation scorpion relies on the Borg being on voyager. Janeway was comatose when the Borg came over, so the plot was hatched when just after she awoke and she and Chakote decided to hug it out.

On the other hand, she never intended for the Borg to board voyager - the plan was for them to cross the space, then give the Borg the nanoprobes. If that had happened things would have gone alright.

I always thought the subtext of Janeway's conversation with Seven was that without free will, Seven was unable to make an informed decision about what she really "wanted." Stockholm Syndrome is one way of putting it, I guess, but Seven was more than a captive. Her free will had been stripped from her, and without evidence that she had regained her own agency, letting her return to the borg immediately based on her "choice" might have been premature. I never got the impression that Janeway wouldn't have let her return to the borg after she had spent some time among humans if she really wanted to, I just think Janeway knew that no human would want to give up their free will after they'd had a chance to finally experience it. It is a conservative position, but in this instance it is also a logically correct assessment... from my perspective anyway. Before Seven can make a choice, she needs to understand what choice is, and understand what humanity offers to her.

Kes on the other hand already had free will, right? She had her own hopes, ambitions, and dreams and she made the choice, an educated choice, to follow them. So while Janeway would miss Kes (and I miss her too, I liked the character even though she wasn't perfect for the show), she would ultimately respect Kes' choice as a person with free will and life experience and let her go.

I don't think there's much hypocrisy here. I think it comes down to how we see choices and our perspective on what makes us ready to make important decisions. This is undoubtedly the theme for this episode and the arc leading up to it.

I liked Seven of Nine more than Kes because she was better for the show, even though I was somewhat fond of Kes. I couldn't stand her relationship with Neelix and felt that was a drag on the show, and her character did end up falling back to the childlike character within the group, oftentimes being little more. However, Jeri Ryan, despite the extent to which some viewers didn't like her, was nevertheless excellent in the role and how she portrayed the character. In this article from yesterday, some of the readers complained about the portrayal of Jolene Blalock as T'Pol in "Enterprise". I think they fail to take into account how difficult it is to play emotionless characters such as these, which are often machine-like in demeanor and in how they're supposed to deliver their lines, and as such, they go largely underappreciated by some viewers. Of the two, Ryan was better as Seven, but she also got the opportunity to break out of the automaton role a little here and there by virtue of her having been extracted from the Borg Collective, though her character failed to continue growing, remaining largely the same throughout the rest of the series.

At the time Ryan was written in and Lien was written out, "Voyager" was in serious trouble due to declining ratings. The dropoff in viewership was so massive that no other show would have remained on the air under such conditions. Something had to be done, and adding Ryan to the cast was an act of desperation, a Hail Mary throw, but it did help the show. The writers were resorting to sex appeal as a last ditch effort to keep people --guys especially-- watching, and to hopefully regain some of the people that had tuned out. In my case, as shallow as it may seem, it worked. Prior to this cast change, "Voyager" underwent some schedule changes, and I not only began missing the show, I didn't even care that I was missing episodes. To this day in fact, I know there are some episodes that I've likely never seen because of that shuffling around by the network. But I liked Jeri Ryan. I knew her from "Dark Skies", where she had played a Russian agent, and I was a bit intrigued as to how she might do playing a Borg. In fact, I had suggested it well in advance of it actually happening over on an AOL "Star Trek" Message Board, though not in relation to "Voyager" necessarily, but rather just in general. To this day I have to believe someone on the writing staff over there at "Voyager" noticed the idea and decided to use it for himself (in more ways than one in fact, given the rumors that he actually ended up bedding the actress :::Ahem!:::)

"Voyager" wouldn't have had a prayer of staying on the air if it was any other series. The fact that it was the show to launch UPN as a network made the executives loath to the idea of cancellation, no doubt also because of how it would have reflected on their station as being a total failure as well, but in the end, adding Ryan enabled to bump the ratings up just enough to allow it to get its seven full seasons like the prior two Trek shows. Losing Lien was sad in a way because she didn't deserve being dumped at the side of the road like the character nobody wanted, and Lord knows she was never anywhere near as annoying as Wesley Crusher and was a hell if a lot cuter. However, the tradeoff helped saved the show, although while the addition of Ryan to the cast also raised the quality of writing and the stories, often also by virtue of making her character such a key player in so many of the episodes, the show still didn't improve enough to be a truly worthy addition of the Trek series Collective. TNG was a better show, and DS9 was differentiating itself by being set on a space station rather than a Starship, despite often being consumed by silly soap opera-type melodrama, whereas "Voyager" remained lost out there in a place no one really cared about, which is why it wasn't able to distinguish itself as being among the best, or at least better of post-TOS modern Trek.

But Ryan was great in that role regardless, despite whatever her detractors may say.

I agree Ryan really brought life to the role, which I think helped to energize the writing of Seven as well. The unfortunate side effect was that having Seven on the show meant that VOY overused the Borg, and weakened them as a threat in the process. However, some of the best uses of Seven really shine through as among the best in the series, or certainly in the later years.

She also helped further the Doctor as a character, just as Kes did. Where Kes helped the Doctor discover himself, the Doctor then helped Seven in a similar way.

I really like the comparison between Janeway and Picard's reaction to the Borg (which I had never though about btw). I think they have massively different situations to deal with though. I mean, Picard had to find his moral center and do the right thing, while still being surrounded by the Federation, but Janeway is trying to make sure everyone survives with no support at all.

'I, Borg' is one of my very favorite episodes precisely because Picard goes against a sound military strategy for one individual, and 'The Gift' is one of my favorite episodes because Janeway is forced to make the tough decision and integrate a borg into the crew because anything else would be kind of suicidal. I don't really think Seven could just go back without any consequences to Voyager.

I disagree with the comparison between Laura Roslin and Captain Janeway though because although Roslin was the president in a tough 'compromise your ethics or die' situation like Janeway often is, she's not completely without support. Roslin still has the other colony leaders, and military leaders, to help her and to fight with her. Janeway only has Chakotay - and even he's only her first mate because an alliance with the Maquis was strategically necessary. In that way, she's kind of on her own, which means there is a lot of responsibility but also a lot of power around everything she personally does. I don't really see the same power structure with Roslin.

I will say, when I first watched Voyager (when it was on TV) I disagreed with Janeway's decisions constantly, but after watching it again this last year, I find myself aligned with her decisions a lot more. I feel like I can really see where the writers were trying to go, and it (mostly) makes sense. I even agree with her wiping out the timeline.

I think she definitely made the right call with Seven. I also enjoy Seven's character (and acting style) more than Kes although Kes was nice and I certainly have nothing against her or Jennifer Lien.

One thing I think would have been very cool and I wish they'd have done it, is to create a Picard on the holodeck who could talk to Seven. It would mean paying Patrick Stewart for a guest appareance, but wouldn't a little mentoring from Locutus have been helpful?

Using Locutus doesn't sound like a half-bad idea. My chief concern is that any use of him (even if it was done well and tastefully) would potentially tarnish the Locutus character as we know him today. This is akin to how overuse of the Borg led to a loss of allure (even if some of the episodes were genuinely good).

Imagine that attitude about someone with gender-queer or transsexual leanings (for lack of a better word). Does Janeway's position seem "progressive"?

this analogy doesn't work for 2 reasons:

1) trans people try hard (and sometime REALLY hard) to be what he or she isn't, but in the end (hopefully) he/she comes to accept what he/she truly is.

7 never got that chance and only wanted to return to the borg because it's either what's she was comfortable-with/used-to or was scared of the alternative.

2) 7 didn't get to spend any time doing the soul-search introspection that trans and gender-queer people end up doing when deciding to be borg, and that justifies janeway in keeping her away from that option.

if much later on 7 still wanted to be a borg and janeway stopped her, then we can say that janeway was just being conservative; but it doesn't apply that early in her relationship with 7.

Seriously though, at first sight I was thinking exactly the same thing as you. Boy, she's boobalicious and what not. It didn't take long to realize that Jeri Ryan stepped up big and the writers put a lot of effort into her character. It's quite regularly commented on that the real stars of voyager were seven and the doctor. At first I was wondering why they needed to cast a model, but after her performance I was completely won over. Without her the show would have been much worse, and that statement has nothing to do with her looks.

I kind of view Seven as the "next attempt at a Data". Technically she was human, but each ST series always had one character that was supposed to teach us about humanity, and how they think "non-humans" (even though she was human) would view human culture. Spock, Data, Odo, Seven, Tupol, all those characters would always find human behavior puzzling, thus showing us how other species might view us.